4 Tech Predictions for the New Year (And CES 2011)

The year is winding down and in the downtime from shopping for the best gifts for friends and family, we're prepping to make our annual January journey to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. Of course, we don't go into the conference blind. We do our homework. Here's a look at some of the most important themes we expect to be coming out of the show.

At the end of each year, as most people are recovering from the holidays and fighting through the setup guides of gadgets they got for the holidays, people in the consumer electronics industry are busy setting the stage for the next holiday season's must-have technology. And the forum they are preparing for is the Consumer Electronics Show, which happens every January in Las Vegas—this year, it officially begins on January 6. And as is the case every year, Popular Mechanics will have our full compliment of tech experts on the scene. CES is a pretty chaotic show, with 100,000-plus attendees and more gadgets than any one observer can take in in a single show, but from some of the advance intelligence we've collected, there will be a few themes to watch for (and one that maybe won't show up after all.)

4G

The next-generation wireless networks are finally here, and predictably, there are multiple competing technologies from different carriers. Sprint and Clearwire are rallying behind the Clear WiMax technology, Verizon is championing its new LTE network (AT&T is scheduled to roll out its LTE network in mid-2011), while T-Mobile has upgraded HSDPA technology to something called HSDPA+, which the company is calling 4G. All the carriers will fight it out in the marketplace, but they will also be loudly making the case at CES that 4G is a game-changer. And there's pretty compelling support for that idea. 4G could drastically change what we expect from our mobile devices and services—unless the carriers mess it all up with complicated and over-expensive pricing plans, which it seems they are already starting to do.

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Tablets

This past year was supposed to be the year of the tablet, and it was—for Apple. It turns out that the slew of Android tablets that was supposed to flood the marketplace by the end of this year has been reduced to just a trickle. It turns out that optimizing Google's cellphone operating system has been a bit trickier than anticipated. But manufacturers such as Motorola, Dell and RIM have been teasing some serious contenders to the iPad's tablet dominance.

And as a sidenote, there's an interesting twist on how the tablet format's ascendance affects the once-popular netbook. Expect new machines in the netbook price range to come out sporting beefier processors that will blur the distinction between netbook and ultraportable laptop.

3D

Last year, television makers put a big push behind 3DTVs, although customers have largely greeted these sets with a collective yawn. The problem? Not enough content, premium prices, incompatible standards and uncomfortable glasses. Expect some set manufacturers to launch new sets that use far less complicated passive 3D glasses, similar to the ones used in movie theaters. Some may even have built-in screens that display 3D without the need for glasses at all. The solution to the lack of content may well be consumers themselves. Look for a variety of new 3D cameras and camcorders to be introduced at the show.

Connected TVs (maybe)

Every year seems to bring another take on Internet-connected television. We've seen Yahoo TV Widgets, Netflix built into all sorts of AV devices (TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, set-top boxes), and this year was supposed to bring a bunch of announcements from TV manufacturers about the spread of Google TV. The search provider's TV/Internet hybrid operating system launched this fall in Sony TVs and in the Logitech Revue set-top box. Unfortunately, Google TV hasn't really wowed critics or consumers yet, so Google has reportedly asked manufacturers to delay many of their announcements about TVs with embedded Google TV technology until Google's software engineers can work out the kinks.

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